On Knitting
by Clementive
Summary: [Highschool!AU]. When Ino gave him the ugly sweater, she was prepared to let him go. When she gave it to him, she gave him the confidence to ask her best friend out. NaruIno


_**Summary:**_ **When Ino gave him the ugly sweater, she was prepared to let him go. When she gave it to him, she gave him the confidence to ask her best friend out. NaruIno**

 _ **I haven't updated ASIPB yet, but here are some NaruIno goodies.^_^'**_

 _ **I wrote this for the rare pair month on tumblr for the prompt Ugly Sweater. Because I love these two dorks and I think Ino would do something like that.**_

-X-

 **On Knitting**

 _ **by Clementive**_

-X-

"So, there's this girl..." Naruto began again, during their break, with jumbled words, half-turned toward her.

"You just need confidence," Ino cut him off, waving him off, because he had tried too many times, all weeklong. But now she was ready. Now, she only ached dully, her fingers numbed, her mind empty.

Ino pushed the sweatshirt toward him, her manicured nails catching in the brown and red itchy stitches. She almost pulled her hand away in disgust, but Naruto watched the motion, entranced, with widened childish eyes, his lips parted. He leaned back over his chair, dangerously unstable.

"It has magical properties," Ino whispered, and she moved her shoulder, arched her back, enough to accentuate her curves. She did it almost unconsciously, the pit of her stomach twisting, burning. She deflated, shrugged, flinching away. He didn't look up. He didn't care.

Naruto gulped. He stared in the black buttons representing the reindeer's eyes. They reflected the light, hungrily, while the rest of the stitch work remained confused, incomplete, Rudolf without his red nose.

"What kind of magical properties?" He licked his lips. Unbalanced, he drummed his fingers on her desk, stilled, and reached over for her markers. He played with them and her pens, spinning them, the corners of his mouth twitching over words he chose to bury.

"It makes you irresistible to the ladies..." Ino lowered her voice, and leaned forward, exaggerating each syllable with her mouth, so he would finally look at her.

"Really?"

Dazed, he reached for the sweater, his hand ghosted over the angry stitches, the incomplete loops of brown wool.

"Yes, I swear."

"So, if I put this on right now..." He cleared his throat, bright red, and reached for her pencil case until she swapped his hand away.

"Stop it!" she hissed.

"Sorry!" He winced, rubbing his hand, before once more leaning back and forth on his chair. "So, I was saying... If I put this on right now, you're going to fall under my charm?"

"Absolutely." She frowned, and still he hesitated. He rubbed his neck, scratched his scalp, bouncing.

"Alright, alright." Naruto grabbed the sweater, and his chair screeched, almost giving up under him. Eagerly, he put it on, and threw his arms up, smiling devilishly. "How about this?"

Ino pressed her lips together. She wished she was the heartless girl who burnt with the urge to destroy. She wished she was the selfish girl who didn't love enough to let go.

"I bet Sakura will fall all over you now," she said flatly, and popped up her hand with her elbow, her attention drifting away seamlessly. She had prepared for this. Letting him go. Stitching, burying her heart away.

Naruto opened his mouth but the bell cut him off. He kept nodding as he turned around toward his desk.

He bounced in his chair during the whole period, and she thought of him finally having the courage to ask Sakura out. She thought of him excitedly telling her how the sweater worked. She thought of all the things that crushed her, so when the bell rang for lunchtime, she was drained.

Ino stood up, gathered her things. She felt nothing, and she barely stumbled as she walked out of the classroom.

-X-

Ino fixed her hair, absentmindedly, pulling loose more and more locks to frame her fake smile. She pulled at her hairband, and her hair spilled around her, masking half of her. Her fingers curled like claws around the door of her locker. She knew she needed to walk away, but in the mirror of her locker, she could see Naruto, in his ugly sweater, walking up to Sakura.

A moment later, he left bouncing, rather than walking, muttering to himself as he always did. Ino began breathing again, deeply, yet shakily. Sakura walked toward her slowly, her head cocked on the side.

"Are you okay? You look a bit pale."

"I'm fine, why?" Ino flipped her hair over her shoulder, and grabbed her books for the next period.

"Well, Naruto is walking around with the ugliest Christmas sweater..." Sakura furrowed her brows, a small smile on her lips, while her eyes searched hers, worried. "And you're not trying to tear it off its body. You're not even hysterical."

"I barely notice him," Ino snorted, as she closed her locker with controlled force.

She didn't want to fight over boys like they once did. She linked arms with Sakura, pulling her toward their next class, her palms icy. No, she didn't want to lose her again.

"What are you doing this weekend? Any date?" She kept her voice, her fake smile, even. Perfect.

"No, why? Is there a party?" Sakura blinked fast, and she slowed down involuntarily.

"Not that I know of," Ino replied, and patted her hand, as if there were still children, her popular, and Sakura, bullied. "Wanna hang out?"

"Sure!"

They lost themselves in the crowd of bodies, but she could still see him. The vision of him, his sweater, the way he jerked and moved shiftily, always excited, gutted her.

And every word Sakura uttered drifted towards her, at once prison and lifebelt.

-X-

He kept wearing it, and she withdrew inside her head, yelling, and raging. His neck flashed, angry red, around the collar, as he played football with the rest of his team. His uniform beneath, hung past the sweater, stuck to his shorts with sweat. He shouted something, and he turned toward them stretching on the bleachers. He gave them a thumb up, winking, and Ino turned toward Sakura. She startled when she found her already watching her, frowning. Ino stilled, then carefully relaxed her face.

"Ino? What's going on? You can tell me..."

"It's the ugly sweater. It's getting to me." Ino rubbed her arms slowly, fighting the goosebumps raising, and the chills surging from within. "I can't believe he's playing with that thing," she heard herself say, and Sakura shrugged, looked down, her lips pressed together.

Ino knew if she grew colder, she would sever into oblivion. She would be pieces of her heart, beating softly, about to be crushed. Nothing would hold her up anymore. Then what? But, how many more glimpses of him in the sweater, she could catch before decaying? How many more glimpses before Sakura turns away from her again?

Ino had always thought if she came to love this strongly, she wouldn't feel this lonely.

So, she smiled brightly, and gripped her friend's hand, pulling her to her feet.

"Let's go to practice before Anko turns blue."

-x-

"Hey!"

Ino hurried up toward her locker, her textbooks bitting into her ribcage. Her bag swung uncomfortably by her side, but she wouldn't stop.

"OI! INO!"

She knew she couldn't avoid him, anymore. She winced, slowed, and then spun on her heels. Naruto jogged up to her, panting. Her heart exploded with each of his step; he still wore the sweatshirt.

"You don't need to be so loud," she grumbled, and briskly turned toward her locker.

"I've been chasing you for... For like two eternities." He bent down, catching his breath, and his mouth worked, his voice hissing, hard. "Are we again in that kind of fights, where I did something wrong and I just don't know it?"

"No, we're peachy." She looked over her shoulder at him, her gaze barely gazing over him. Impatiently, she tapped her foot to hide her nervousness, bury her voice, her body trembling. She was exhausted. "I'm just in a hurry. What is it?"

Ino opened her combination lock, roughly, her chest uncomfortable, constricted. He grabbed her hand, stopping her, and she halted, shocked, inhaling sharply.

"Can we study for the math quiz tomorrow?"

"Why don't you ask Forehead girl?" She untangled herself from him, and she wondered if her felt the ripping too, her skin suddenly cold, buzzing with the sense, the weight of him.

"Because we yell in the library when you try to teach me math. That's our thing," he said lowly, almost hesitantly. Under the neon lights of the hallway, his face glistened, yellowish, with sweat, and he looked sick. "Sakura beats me up over biology, and Neji glares and snaps at me over the rest," he added, quickly, each word strung, stretched, his jaw clenching and unclenching. "We can't be peachy if you're going back over your words."

She flinched, and picked up her bag again, shaking her locks. She gripped her textbooks to her chest to avoid touching him, comforting him. He looked lost, and she already knew she was. And she missed him. She missed the brightness of him, the way he spoke with his whole body, with escaped words and shouts that often made him wince and pause.

"I'm not, sorry. Long day." Ino pointed vaguely toward the exit. "I need to go. Just bring your A-game, tomorrow. See you!"

"Wait, what? Is it the sweater?" he shouted after her, but this time she outran him. "INO!"

-X-

They had sprawled their textbooks and their exercise books at their usual table at the back of the library. He bent over a problem, his tongue stuck between his lips, his brows knitted together.

"So, did you ask her out?" She doodled around an equation, holding her hair back with one hand.

"Who?" He glanced over at her, quickly, before punching a number on his calculator.

"Sakura?" She shifted in her chair, then straightened her back, staring at him directly. "Or any of the other ladies who have fallen for your charm?"

"Ino." He spun the notebook toward her, and slowly, he began to move, jerk again.

"Hmm?" She doodled over his notebook, a continuation of her original drawing without thinking.

"Huh, well it's complicated, you see how sometimes you wear stuff, and you really really hope that it's magical, because you were told it was magical, like Christmas magic or something. But really it's like the story of the ugly duckling, it's ugly and magical."

"What?" She frowned, trying to decipher his handwriting, but the numbers, their signs swam in her vision.

"I'm saying, you touched it first! You enchanted me! Believe me!"

"WHAT?" She looked up, startled.

" _SHHH!_ "

"It's the magical properties of the sweater." He whispered, his body low over the table, and his hands closed around random pens and markers. "I looked at you, well, actually, those nails of yours on it and... Was it goosebumps? What's a good word for mesmerized? Oh, I know! You took my breath away! That's what they say, believe it!" Pens and markers rolled off their table. He snapped his fingers, smiling, and his voice was too loud. The librarian shushed them again, glaring over at their table.

"Oh my god! This is your worst prank yet!" she angrily hissed and slammed shut her textbook. It was all wrong. She shook her head, her finger rubbing at her temples, as her mind spun. She pushed back her chair. He sprung to his feet, red-faced.

"I'm terrible with words!" Naruto gestured, his voice loud, but breaking. "It was supposed to be all sleek and awesome. Let's go out!"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT WHAT?"

" _This is the library, you two, not a nightclub! This is my last warning!_ "

"Sorry!" They said in unison, and hesitantly turned back toward each other.

"Ino, I like you. I'm not a man of words, or a man of anything really. Maybe, I'm just a dude, actually." He squinted, his head titled to the side.

"Naruto."

"Riiiight, sorry! I'm saying is you gave me the most hideous sweater, and I wore it. Whenever, I-, whenever you were there, I wore it. I hate it so much. It's stiff and itchy, and I want to burn it so bad, you have no idea. Sooo bad. I hate it about just as much as I like you."

"What about Sakura?"

"What about you fangirling over Sasuke? We aren't twelve anymore... Was I wrong?"

"I knitted that sweater," Ino admitted because she didn't know what else to say. She slid back into her chair. She could read, predict anyone's intentions. Except Naruto's.

He pressed his hands over his mouth, his eyes filling with tears, as his chest shook with laughter.

"It's not funny! I really tried." Ino swapped his arm, and he grabbed her hand. He squeezed it, kissed it, still hiccuping. "I really tried," she whispered again, her face flushed, half standing up, hanging over their textbooks because he held on to her hand.

She had knitted her heart out, and he had worn it.

She began laughing too, her nails catching into the loose wool, clumsy stitches when he pulled her to him. He pushed his chair back, almost impatiently kicking it out of his way, and his hands sank into her hair, holding her face in place. He brushed his lips against hers, and she fisted the sweater, pressing herself against him, demanding instead of hesitant like him. And they kissed more forcibly, textbooks and homework forgotten between them.

" _That's it! GET OUT OF THE LIBRARY, YOU TWO!_ "

-X-

 _ **Merry Christmas/Happy holidays, guys! :D**_

 _ **Please let me know if you enjoyed it! ^_^**_


End file.
